‘Married to Medicine’ star Dr. Simone Whitmore defends Dr. Heavenly Kimes being cut from wedding guest list
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Over the course of 10 seasons of Married to Medicine, Dr. Simone Whitmore has been one of our favourite stars of the show, someone we continue to really root for, and we trust her judgement on all of the drama that’s unfolding in this season of the reality show.
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With Season 10 marking the introduction of The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, Phaedra Parks, to Married to Medicine, Parks brought of few complications with her. Most notably, Parks invited Quad Webb to Lateasha “Sweet Tea” Lunceford’s bachelorette party, in advance of her wedding to Webb’s ex-husband, Dr. Gregory Lunceford (Dr. G).
“I had not seen Quad since last year when we were in New York and so to see her strolling in, she had gift bags in both hands, hair and makeup was gorgeous, her outfit was gorgeous, I’m like, ‘Look at Miss Quad,’ that was my first reaction,” Whitmore told Yahoo Canada about that moment. “And then a few seconds later I’m like, ‘Why is this girl crashing the bachelorette party?’ It’s inappropriate. So inappropriate.”
When it came to sharing the screen with Parks, who has quite the polarizing reputation from her Real Housewives of Atlanta days (even though we always loved watching her on the show), Whitmore knew Parks before she was on Married to Medicine, but was pleasantly surprised by their interactions for the show.
“I’ve known Phaedra for years, we have friends in common, because I have a really good girlfriend that she’s friends with, that is a lawyer,” Whitmore said. “I didn’t know what to expect. It was a pleasant surprise.”
“She was always pleasant, complimentary, sweet. It has truly been a pleasant surprise having her.”
‘Completely appropriate’ for Dr. Heavenly Kimes to be axed from Sweet Tea’s wedding guest list
As we saw in Season 10, Episode 4 of Married to Medicine, Sweet Tea may have gotten over Parks bringing her soon-to-be-husband’s ex-wife to her bachelorette party, but she still had a bone to pick with Dr. Heavenly Kimes, who had been expressing her concerns about the upcoming wedding.
Kimes was specifically sharing her concerns about Dr. G’s “controlling” behaviour, which Sweet Tea had talked to her about in a previous episode of the show. Kimes connected the behaviour to her knowledge of Dr. G’s relationship with his ex-wife and suggested this new marriage won’t last.
But Sweet Tea certainly didn’t appreciate Kimes talking so openly about her concerns about the marriage, and she took Kimes and her husband, Dr. Damon Kimes, off the wedding guest list. The couple found out when they showed up at the venue and were initially turned away, before sneaking in during the ceremony.
“I thought it was completely appropriate that she was removed from the guest list,” Whitmore said. “You can’t predict that a marriage isn’t going to make it, you can’t make the prediction out loud with your big mouth and expect to come in and be a welcomed guest.”
“I think everything she gets put through, she kind of deserves it. … I think Heavenly had a really close relationship with Quad. Those are all of Quad’s complaints and views, Heavenly did not live in the home with Gregory and Quad and it is my opinion she should have kept those thoughts to herself. But we know Heavenly, she’s not going to keep any thought to herself.”
‘I’m the mean mama and I wear that with a badge of honour’
In terms of Whitmore’s personal storyline in this season of Married to Medicine, the doctor is letting us into some conflict with her husband about parenting their sons, Miles and Michael. While Cecil Whitmore is happy to have their son Miles take his time to finish college, Whitmore’s expecting him to have a concrete end date.
In Episode 5 of the season, we see the Whitmores talk about possible conditions they’ll have when buying their sons a place to live, with Dr. Whitmore being adamant that Miles, in particular, has to get a job and pay rent. Her husband is more lenient, if their son doesn’t end up making enough money to pay rent.
“It is hard, being on a platform and discussing your marital problems out loud,” Whitmore admitted. “Now everybody in America gets to weigh in and have opinions about our parenting styles, and even whether or not I should be discussing that on a platform.”
“We’re the same parents of both children and it’s just hard because we are never in agreement with what to do about the boys. Cecil relates to them better than I do, because they’re all guys. Cecil understands where they’re coming from. I simply cannot relate to my own children. But I’m the one that has to put the hammer down. Cecil’s the cool dad, the friendly dad. I’m the mean mama and I wear that with a badge of honour.”
Throughout the 10 seasons of Married to Medicine, the Whitmores have been quite open about the ups and downs in the relationship, including coming to the edge of getting a divorce. But Whitmore revealed that they are in a “much better place” now.
“We had that year where we both were the worst of ourselves,” she said. “We were both really stubborn. We were both really petty.”
“But we’ve been married 27 years now and marriage is like a rollercoaster ride. Some years you’re on a high. This would be a high for us, where we’re enjoying one another’s company, we’re having a good time. Our only disagreements mostly revolve around Miles and Michael.”
Medical awareness and education in ‘Married to Medicine’
While Married to Medicine is definitely a Bravo reality show, with all the drama, parties and luxury we’ve come to expect, what makes the show stand out is that it has also exposed real health issues to a larger audience. This has included education on how women have to advocate for themselves in healthcare settings, and inequities in the healthcare system.
For example, in the most recent episode Whitmore (an OB/GYN) talks to Sweet Tea about her spotting issues, inconsistency with her menstrual cycle, specifically irregular bleeding, and pelvic pain. Another cast member, Dr. Jackie Walters (also an OB/GYN), has a conversation with Da Brat about being pregnant at age 48, before giving birth at age 49. Walters also talks about maternal mortality being higher in Black women.
“Black women have to deal with the fact that they are thought of as less than,” Walters says on the show. “We don’t get the exact same care as women of other races.”
“We don’t have access to some of the facilities and when you get to the facility, you’re treated differently.”
“Hats off to my production company for just making sure that each year we highlight health issues, health discrepancies,” Whitmore said. “As women, so many of us go through the same things, we go through endometriosis, infertility, fibroids, breast cancer, every woman can relate to that because even if it hasn’t happened to you directly, you have somebody in your circle that it has happened to.”
“Being able to be on a platform where we’re able to talk about it, we’re able to share it with the rest of America, is a blessing. I’m glad that our show highlights medical issues and health disparities in the African American community.”
Looking back at her time on the show, Whitmore said it’s “amazing” to have Married to Medicine hit its 10th season milestone.
“I never would have guessed we would still be on after 10 years, but it’s such an amazing accomplishment for our show,” Whitmore said.
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How to watch ‘Married to Medicine’
Married to Medicine Season 10 airs weekly on Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ET, which is available to watch on Hayu in Canada.
All previous seasons of the show can also be streamed on Hayu.
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